Maine high court rules against ATV rider

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court has overturned a lower court judge’s ruling that a state law that authorized game wardens to stop all-terrain vehicle operators without cause was unconstitutional.

In a decision Thursday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated a ruling that had suppressed evidence against Charles Bromiley IV, who was stopped in July 2008 for a random ATV check in Monson and arrested for operating under the influence.

In a similar case, the supreme court issued a ruling in August that gave game wardens power to stop an ATV regardless of whether they thought the operator had broken the law.

But state law has since been changed, and now says wardens are required to have reasonable suspicion to believe that a violation has taken place before stopping an ATV.